Crossing the Line
by Indigo1100
Summary: The Cullen boys come across a mysterious line on the forest floor. Their actions end up having serious consequences. WARNING: will contain non-corporal torture in later chapters. And it is NOT EdwardXJane.
1. Trespass

**Me: Hey, Stephenie Meyer, can I own **_**Twilight**_**?**

**Stephenie Meyer: Um, no.**

**Me: Well, how about just Jane then?**

**Stephenie Meyer: No.**

**Me: *Walks off in a huff*. Well fine then.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Twilight**_**.**

**A/N: Sentences in italics are other people's thoughts that Edward hears. Sentences in symbols are Edward's own thoughts (none of those in this chapter, though).**

_*Ring Ring*_

The sound of the phone broke into the relative silence of the room, interrupting my reading. I growled deep in my throat. They'd _promised_, promised that after two weeks of almost non-stop touring they would leave me alone this day. Not that I had anything against touring of course, or against my family. I knew how lucky I was to have all of them, and I was as glad as any of my siblings for this family vacation, but after this many days, I could no longer bear it. At least when we attended school, I had the afternoons and weekends away from the constant barrage of petty human thoughts. Now, with no such chance, I had been getting dangerously close to yelling at everyone to just stop thinking, or at least to putting my fist through a wall. So I'd been promised this one day by myself, to give me a rest from what would have been, if that were possible, a massive headache. Well apparently some people couldn't keep their promises.

I reached out my hand for the phone, remembering at the last moment to control myself. It would be hard to explain to the hotel if I accidentally crushed it. I heard the voice even before I put the phone to my ear.

"Edward!" It was Alice, and my planned furious greeting died in my throat at the frantic almost-hysteria in her voice, to be replaced by panic of my own.

"Alice, what is it? What happened? What's _going_ to happen?"

"Edward!" If she were human I would have said she was about to cry. "Edward, it's Jasper. One of the people in his tour group got hurt, and he managed to resist, but now he's extra-sensitive. I keep getting visions- if he sees any other person bleeding today, he'll attack them. He's been putting off feeding- he promised me he'd go hunting tonight- but if someone doesn't take him now it's going to happen and I _can't_, I'm too far away to get to him without drawing attention. I'm sorry, I know we all promised, but the museum is only two streets away from you and-" I interrupted her.

"Alice, stop it, you don't need to be sorry. Of course I'll take him. Emmett and I can both go- he's downstairs in the arcade right now. We can go right now. It'll be fine." There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and I knew Alice was looking into the future.

"You're right," she said after a few seconds had passed, and I was relieved to hear the panic gone out of her voice. "If the two of you go right now, it'll be fine."

"Then that's exactly what we'll do. Goodbye, Alice."

"Goodbye, Edward. Thank you so much." The line went dead. I threw down the phone, checked the hall to make sure it was clear, then ran at vampire speed down to the arcade. In less then a minute I had explained the situation to Emmett, and the two of us were headed for the museum, moving as fast as we dared.

Once we got there, though, a new problem arose. I, of course, was able to find where Jasper was instantly, but how were we supposed to get to him? The ticket line was far too long, and people would notice and try to stop us if we just went in. Just them, I caught sight of a poster about a new exhibit- the history of penicillin- and an idea occurred to me. With a glance around, I located the help desk and walked over, then addressed the staff member behind it, making my voice as non-threatening and convincing as I could.

"Excuse me, but could you perhaps call my brother over here?" The woman answered me in a monotone, annoyed.

"We can only page patrons if there is an emergency."

"It is an emergency. He forgot to take his medication before he left, and he needs to take it daily." I could hear her thinking it over, wondering if I was just fooling with her, weighing that against the chance of real problems. I tried for a persuasive smile.

"Please?" It worked, or else she just decided in my favor for another reason, because she sighed and asked me who I wanted to call. I told her, she made the call, and finally, after five minutes of nervous waiting, tracking Jasper's thoughts to make sure nothing was going to happen in the meanwhile, he showed up. As soon as he saw us, he grimaced. _Treating me like a child again. I can handle myself, I don't need nursemaids. _I sighed, muttered a quick and sincere thank you to the desk woman and walked over to head Jasper off. I managed to get in the first word.

"Yes, we all know this annoys you, but Alice was frantic with visions about you, and the only way she'll feel better is if you go hunting with us." There was very little Jasper wouldn't do for Alice, and we all knew it. I could tell he was reading my emotions, checking for sincerity, and that he apparently found it, because his thoughts changed from anger to resignation and even a hint of relief.

"All right then, let's go."

The parks in this town were too empty of wildlife and full of people for us, but we always picked places with hunting grounds nearby, so it did not take the three of us long to reach the forest. We broke into a run, wanting to get as far away from humans as possible, and I even began to enjoy myself, but after only a minute, Emmett suddenly froze, in, as I could tell from Jasper's mind, abrupt surprise. We came to a stop as well to see Emmett pointing at the ground.

"What on earth if that?" I looked, and saw, right in front of us on the forest floor, a line, running off in both directions as far as I could see. To humans, it would have been invisible, part of the general pattern of sticks and dirt and leaves, but to us, with our vision, it was clear as anything. I tried to think about what it might be, but Jasper had already begun to go into hunting mode as we ran, and now the thirst in his mind was so loud it was distracting. "Oh, and look." Emmett, meanwhile, had turned away from the line to glance at a nearby tree, where, carved also with a subtlety that made it visible only to our kind, was some sort of symbol.

"What is it? Is it a border of some kind? Does it mean we shouldn't got there?" Emmett sounded bewildered.

"I don't know. Maybe."

As soon as I'd noticed the sign I'd known for certain that I'd seen it before. But where? Trying to tune Jasper out again, I began running through memories, but was pulled from my mind by Emmett's sudden exclamation in his.

_Edward!_ I almost cursed as I saw the reason for it. A group of hikers was coming this way. Their scent had just reached Emmett. In a moment it would reach Jasper. I gritted my teeth.

"Right, that settles it, border or not, that's where we're going." And with that I grabbed Jasper's arm and pulled him across the line and further into the forest, Emmett following after me a moment later.

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	2. Confrontation

**Me: Hey, Jane, may I steal you? Because your author won't give you to me.**

**Jane: Um, no.**

**Me: Oh, come on.**

**Jane: *Starts to smile***

**Me: *backing away* OK, OK, I get it! I'll be… going now.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Esau and the center are mine. No one else is.**

_Three Days Later_

I've always wondered which urban designer it was who first came up with the idea of making city streets look like canyons. Whoever they were, it's a shame that they are most certainly long since dead, because that means I can never read their mind and find out what exactly they were thinking. Did they enjoy cornering and chasing people through alleyways at night, and get frustrated when their prey ducked between houses? Did they want the streets to double as aqueducts? I didn't know, and didn't suppose I ever would.

It was mid-dusk, and Emmett Jasper and I were walking through just such a street, uninterrupted brick walls rising several stories up on either side of us. In addition to this I, unlike my brothers, I was also surrounded by the thoughts of the humans behind the walls. As usual, they were utterly boring and commonplace, and I let them fade to background noise.

_Why are we watching this channel, it's so stupid._

_If she's not back in 10 minutes-_

_I hope we're not having that for dinner._

_There they are!_

I snapped suddenly to full attention. That last mental voice had not sounded like humans playing hide and seek or anything else so innocent. It had sounded like… hunters. And even worse, I was almost sure that the image that had gone with the words was that of us. Ignoring Jasper, who was wondering at my sudden shift in emotions, I threw my head up, searching the windows, trying to see where the thought had come from, and then abruptly my vision was obscured by something black that glided over my head and landed on the road in front of us. All three of us whirled around to see four more black-cloaked figures landing beside the first. They moved, swift and coordinated as a dance, spreading out to half-surround us against the wall. I started in shock. Without a doubt, these people were vampires. And I had no idea who they were.

The same surprise I felt was coming from my brothers' thoughts, while mine only increased as I began to hear the minds of the newcomers in full.

_Finally!_

_ Oh, Jane is going to be so pleased_

_ Look at them, not even trying to hide_

_ This should be good, I hope Jane won't mind if we watch_

To my left, Emmett was still staring, trying to figure out what could be going on. To my right, meanwhile, Jasper began leaning into a crouch, and I could hear him mentally analyzing the situation, planning the best course of action, the best course of… attack. I wasn't surprised- he had spent part of his human life and the first half of his vampire life in situations where a confrontation meant a fight, and for that matter, it was hard even for me to imagine what else this could mean- but I didn't think it would be a good idea to be the initiators. I put my hand on Jasper's shoulder and moved my mouth so close to his ear that I could hope the figures surrounding us wouldn't hear me.

"We shouldn't start anything until they do; maybe they're not trying to be hostile." As I'd imagined, he found that rather hard to believe.

_Trust me, Edward, they're hostile all right._ I could see his sense of their emotions in his mind, and I had to agree with his conclusion. I was trying to marshal some argument that would convince Jasper to wait, when suddenly, the vampire in the middle of the formation threw off her hood. Long, glistening red hair spilled out to hang straight down to her waist, and her crimson eyes surveyed us intently. I caught her thoughts again.

_So, to be sure…_ Without breaking her gaze, she addressed two of her companions out loud.

"Esau, Demetri, is it them?" The one on her right nodded, while the one on the far left replied aloud, a man's voice.

"It is." His voice was perfectly composed; his thoughts were not.

_Of course it's them. What did you think, that I would be wrong? I am never wrong._ I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but I couldn't focus on that, because beside me, Jasper was getting ready to spring in earnest. The only way I could think of to stop him was to get more information, so, clenching my fists hard enough to crush steel- I was trying to preserve the peace, yes, but I was far from calm- I raised my eyes to meet the woman's, making both them and my voice as flat as possible.

"Who's them?" She, in contrast to me, smiled, and her voice was almost casual, even amused.

"Oh, I would say '_them'_ is the three little vampires who trespassed on our area three days ago, despite the _very _clear mark we left to avoid exactly that occurrence." In her mind, I suddenly saw the symbol that had been such a mystery then. Except that this time, I recognized exactly what it was, and suddenly felt sick to my stomach in a way that, as a vampire, I never would have expected. _Oh, damn_. Beside me, Jasper stiffened as he also realized what was happening, while Emmett swung his head back and forth along the line before us as he did not. This time, I addressed my whisper to him.

"That symbol last week- remember, the one we were confused about- it was the Volturi crest." I expected Emmett's mind to flood with curses, but instead, for a moment there was completely nothing. Then:

_That's not good._ I gritted my teeth. No, it certainly wasn't good. Carlisle had told us all about the Volturi, about why we must never violate the order that they guarded. And this also prompted another question, one I wasn't very sure I wanted to ask, or more specifically, to know the answer to. I didn't see much of a choice, though. I turned back to the woman and tried to control my voice again.

"Are you going to kill us?" I knew that the penalty for breaking Volturi law was always death, but I couldn't remember any law like this. So maybe, just maybe, it wasn't a law. Just a Volturi rule or something. And then maybe, just maybe, we had a chance of getting out of this alive, _Did we?. _Next to me, my brothers were both thinking this same thing, also thinking, predictably, of their mates. Briefly, my mind flicked back to Carlisle and Esme. How would it be for them, to loose all their sons at once just because the sons in question couldn't use their brains long enough to remember something every vampire knew? The woman's smile, meanwhile, widened.

"Why of course we aren't. At least, not unless you provoke us. By attacking us, say-" her eyes flicked to Jasper, whose crouching stance she had not missed "-or trying to run-" they moved to me. Great, did I really look that pathetic? "-or using your power on us…" Jasper again, and I saw a memory in the woman's mind, another vampire, black eyes wide with fear, babbling even faster than vampire speed at her, tripping over his words, even "-_no, no, feelings, the feeling is what he does, making, making yours what he wants, whatever he wants, he-"_ One of Jasper's old Southern enemies, it seemed. Or maybe even allies… Well, they did not seem to know about my talent, at least, the talent I immediately focused on them. I had to know if they were telling the truth.

_We _ought_ to kill them. We make a few examples, maybe everyone will stop tramping all over our land and then we won't have to go to all this trouble tracking them down._

_ Naïve idiots, do they really think they'd still be _alive_ if we were going to kill them?_

_ I hope they do try something, I'd love to tear them to pieces. That blond one thinks he can take us. Ha!_

_They might wish we were, when Jane's done with them_. This Jane again. Was that the woman's name? And what did she do that was so terrifying?

_Edward, is she lying?_ Jasper's thoughts were directly sharp. I shook my head slightly, knowing that he would see. Well, either that or they did know of my ability and were so disciplined they were all controlling their thoughts completely. Which, considering that they were Volturi, wasn't fully implausible, but I saw no need to share that idea with my brothers. Jasper straightened up then, an army major suddenly instead of a combatant vampire, and also met the woman's gaze.

"What are your intentions, then?"

"Why to punish you, of course. To- what's that phrase? Ah, of course, to teach you a lesson about exactly what happens to those who… cross the line. So, if you'd be so good as to come with us- and by come, I hope you understand I mean come quietly- then we can get this done without any unnecessary complications." She finished talking, and there was silence, silence that went on because it was our move and we weren't making it. I cursed in my head. _stupid…_With those conditions and the numbers we were facing, any and all prudence would suggest obeying, but submitting to the enemy wasn't in Jasper's nature any more than going without a fight was in Emmett's, and to be honest, I didn't find the idea of coming quietly too appealing myself. The moment stretched out, and finally the leader lost patience.

"Right, that's enough," she snapped, voice hard now instead of sugary. "You have two options, vampire boys. Either you come with us, we deal with you, and you can go home to your coven and your mates, or you don't, we kill you, and if we're nice, we _may_ drop by and tell them what happened. Decide, now." Well, when she put it that way… My brothers had come to the same conclusion I had, which was that we had no choice at all, so I spoke for all three of us,

"We'll come" The leader smiled, not in the least bit sweetly.

"Then come on." She turned and began walking away. We followed, passing through the hole she left in the line. As we walked past, two guards fell into step beside us, and I could hear the footsteps and the thoughts of the last two, who followed after. I tried to get some clue as to our fate from the Volturi's minds, but there was nothing, so we walked on, surrounded, toward our unknown sentence.

**People, please! I'm really grateful to everyone who's read and to everyone who's put this on story alert. But I want to know what you think of it! Come on, it doesn't take that long to push that little button and write something, and it means so much.**

**Please, please, please review!**


	3. Sentence

**Me: Come on, Stephenie, can't I please own **_**Twilight**_**?**

**Stephenie Meyer: Haven't we had this conversation already?**

**Me: Well, yes, but come on. Please!**

**Stephenie Meyer: No.**

**Me: Please!**

**Stephenie Meyer: Do I need to call Jane to get rid of you?**

**Me: *Runs away* No, I'm good!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Twilight**_**.**

**Warning: Right, this is the chapter with the non-corporal torture, and it will probably be described at length. So, if you don't like that kind of thing, or are bothered by it, or whatever, DON'T READ IT. You've been warned.**

We walked until we reached the end of town, keeping to empty alleys and narrow streets where all the windows had curtains over them, then walked onward out of it until finally, perhaps a mile beyond the last house, the leader stopped.

"We're running from here on." She told us without turning when the rest of the group halted behind her as well. "Someone will be holding each of you. If you try to get away you will be destroyed." None of us said anything: there was nothing to say. A hand came out of the cloak nearest me and grabbed my wrist, and we set off into the already fallen night.

I didn't bother keeping track of how long we ran. None of us tired, no new thoughts crossed the minds of any of the guards, and only the scenery around us, shrouded in darkness that meant nothing, changed. We finally came to a stop in front of a cliff of black rock pierced by a narrow irregular opening. The leader stepped aside to let two of our escorts through it then jerked her head at us.

"Inside." We obeyed: from her thoughts I knew that she'd followed us in. A brief journey along a twisted passage later, we found ourselves in some sort of cave, a large chamber with walls of the same black stone and an almost smooth floor. One of the guards grabbed Jasper by the shoulders and shoved him toward the middle of the room.

"You," the leader ordered, "over there. You two," she turned to look at Emmett and me, "over to that wall. Kneel on the ground and face it, hands on your heads."

_Someone's been watching too many movies_ I heard Emmett think: somehow, he was able to find humor even in this situation. All three of us obeyed our orders once again, and I quickly focused on Jasper's mind to see though his eyes. Not knowing what was going to happen was starting to seriously grate on my nerves.

Jasper stood in some military-seeming stance, feet shoulder width apart, spine straight, hands clasped behind his back, searching the edges of the room for anything that might yield information. Finally, we heard the sound of footsteps from another opening in the rock, and a moment later another cloaked figure- a rather _short_ cloaked figure- emerged into the cave. Its mind was full of confident satisfaction, pride in its work, anticipation for what it was about to do, and so much sadistic glee it made me almost nauseous. Its emotions mirrored its thoughts, and Jasper shifted slightly- even he was disconcerted. The figure stopped a few yards in front of Jasper and threw back its hood. Both of us almost jumped in surprise. Under the hood was a girl with the face of an angel, full lips starting to curve up in a smile. The bloodlust in her mind increased, and for an instant I sincerely wished I was human just so that I could go throw up. Evil beauty should not have shocked me, of course- isn't that what we all are, after all- but this, this was worse than anything I'd seen even among our kind. If a demon was to posses an angel, I thought, this is what it would be.

"We brought them, Jane." The leader's voice was respectful now, deeply so, and I almost jumped again. So this was Jane, then. "These are the three trespassers."

"Very good." The demon-angel, the girl Jane, spoke for the first time. Her voice was beautiful as well, but I could feel the delighted menace that underlay it. "Aro will be very pleased."

She had been looking at Jasper this entire time, and now she studied him intently. In his mind, I could feel his instinct-fueled, almost wild desire to attack her, her so small there before him, threatening him and his coven, his family, and I could feel the iron self-control he was exerting to stay still and just keep facing her. She, in turn, had no fear at all, no trepidation facing a vampire half again her size whose very skin testified that he was dangerous, that he killed. Her lips turned up again.

"This, vampire-boy, is what happen to those who cross the line. Watch and learn." My nerves were stretched so taunt it almost hurt, all my enhanced senses and my own extra straining to know what was about to happen, to catch the first hint of her movement. But she didn't move at all. She just stood there, and looked at him, and slowly widened her smile.

What happened next took me by such utter surprise that I almost fell over to the floor, and it didn't help that I had almost no idea what _had _happened. There was nothing, nothing at all, like for all the seconds and minutes before, and then suddenly I was thrown out of Jasper's mind by the mental consciousness of all-devouring agony. I couldn't feel it myself, not in my body, but I could see in his mind that he felt it, that he, still completely untouched in the middle of the cave floor, was in incredible pain.

Abruptly the stone under me shook, and I knew Jasper's knees had hit the ground as he collapsed onto it. An instant later I heard a scream, and if I had blood it would have run cold. Jasper had spent decades in the most brutal conflict imaginable, had been torn into and attacked and sometimes almost destroyed. It took a lot to make him scream.

For indeterminable minutes it went on and on, the screams and the mental echo of pain and the image in my head of Jasper writhing on the ground. And then it was cut off, suddenly as it had started, the silence almost ringing, and Jasper pushed himself to his feet and stood back in his parade rest, his teeth clenched now, his whole body taunt. And then Jane smiled again…

* * *

The third time, the stone ground literally cracked when he fell, and the screams went on for the longest time yet. Jane didn't give him time to rise before turning slightly to address the redhead who I had called the leader, who I could see now was no leader at all when compared to Jane.

"Next, please." The redhead nodded and turned as well to snap her fingers at Jasper. "You, over by the wall like them." She strode over to us to grab Emmett by the shoulder. "You, your turn."

I felt incredibly bad for Emmett- unlike me, he had had no way of seeing what was going on, had only Jasper's screams and the shaking ground as hints to what awaited him. I wished that I could tell him, warn him, but of course there was no way. Instead of him, Jasper dropped down on his knees beside me, shaking slightly, and I wished I could tell him something as well, though in truth I had utterly no idea what to say. In my mind I watched Emmett waking to the cave's center, his own surprise as he saw Jane, watched as once more her lips began to turn up. And so it all happened again.

* * *

This time, I listened to the other thoughts around us as well, hearing the satisfaction in the minds of the guards at a job well done, the pleasure at the show. I wanted to kill them, and I tried to focus on that so I wouldn't hear Emmett's screams, beginning and ending and beginning and ending and beginning again. It didn't work, and I couldn't make the images leave my mind either, and once more I had to listen and watch until the final end, until Jane once more shifted her body and said

"Next." Not even a please this time. And then my unneeded breathing suddenly caught as I realized that now it was my turn, as I saw the redhead walking toward me. For almost the first time in my damned existence, I wanted to pray. A hand dropped onto my shoulder.

"You-" my mind was in too much of an uproar to hear the rest, to listen to the rest. My body felt like the marble it resembled as I followed the flame-and-darkness messenger to the demon-angel herself.

I halted in front of her, my real eyes finally seeing her face for themselves. She still looked perfect, like a one of those fairy children in the movies, like she might dance in a flowery meadow and float on the sun's rays. If not for her cloak, that is, if not for her deep crimson eyes, if not for the spike of bloodlust in her mind and the menace in her lips as their corners turned up just that way for the seventh time that night…

For all that I was expecting it, for all that I had felt its shadow and had braced myself for it, the pain took me completely by surprise. One moment I was staring at Jane's lips, and the next they had suddenly been torn away from my eyes, the whole cave, all reality had been torn away, to be replaced by blinding, deafening, overwhelming agony. I barely felt it as my body dropped to the floor, as my legs and arms flailed out, hardly heard the screams coming from my own mouth. Fire burned through all my veins. Every molecule of my being was pierced with searing needles, sliced open, crushed to pieces. It was worse than the pain of transformation, worse than anything, racing through me, sharp and scorching and devouring. It went on an on and on, and I wanted to die, wanted someone to end it all for me already, wanted anything, anything but this. And then it stopped. The room came back, and the ground I lay on, and my arms as I tried to push my palms against the ground and rise, just to show I could. I didn't get that chance. Before I had done more than brace against the stone, I heard Jane's mind directed at me again, and again everything was ripped away.

I couldn't bear it, I thought, I couldn't endure it. It was pain beyond belief, agony beyond comprehension. I couldn't describe it any more, couldn't compare it, because nothing could ever compare to it, nothing could ever explain it. I could just lie there and scream and wish for anything that would give me rest, to pay any price for a close, for a finish.

Again it stopped, and this time I didn't even try to move, just lay there curled into myself, dreading the final strike I knew would come. I thought I saw Jane's face somewhere above me, her smile turned now into laughter, but before I knew if the sight was real or not, she struck, and I was gone.

If anything, it was worse this time, a worse that I could hardly believe in, because how could anything be worse? How could I still be here, how could I not be a pile of ash, when I'd been torn to pieces so, and burned so, like I'd been thrown into the center of the sun? How could I still be in a cave, still be lying at Jane's feet? How could there still be people to hear me scream? Had it really been only minutes now? Had it really been this long before? Hadn't it been hours, hadn't it been weeks, hadn't the universe reached its end already? And still the agony went on. I screamed and screamed. I wanted to destroy the world, wanted to destroy the universe, wanted the end of time, wanted anything with a desperation that was like madness. Why had we picked this? Why hadn't we picked death? We should have picked death…

The pain stopped. Abruptly and completely it was gone, leaving nothing at all behind. I could see again, see the stone ground around me that I clung to like it was my only hold on existence. I could hear again, hear someone talking somewhere above me, words coming to me in snatches.

"…Volturi…there… lesson... borders… respect…" And I could feel again, feel when seconds or minutes or days later, a hand touched my shoulder one more time, a careful hand this time, a friendly hand.

"Edward…" I turned my head to look above me. Jasper and Emmett were there, bent over me, looking as worried as I'd ever seen them. Which one of them had said my name? _It doesn't matter._ I turned again, and tried to push up against the ground, but my body seemed to be refusing to obey me. I winced, suddenly furious at myself. They'd both gotten up, hadn't they? They were walking around, weren't they?

"Edward-" this was Jasper's voice, I could tell now. "Edward, stop with the inadequacy feelings. The redhead told that girl you were our leader. She was harder on you than on any of us."

Really? Had she said that? When had she said that? I tried to remember some conversation like that, but my mind drew a total blank. I wanted to put my head through a wall.

"Edward!" It was Jasper again. "Edward, seriously quit it! You're going to be fine, you just need a little time. But we need to get out of here right now, so just let us pick you up so we can get back to town. We promised to be back by dawn, and if we're not inside by then we'll have to hide and be a day late, and then we'll have to explain things, and I don't think we want to." I winced again at the thought of Carlisle and Esme knowing what had happened to us, before thinking of something else.

"Wait, but Alice-" my mind seemed to getting into order again, somehow. "Won't she have seen?" This time it was Jaspers turn to wince, and I could tell how much thinking about this bothered him.

"Probably. And I'm incredibly sorry for that. But she's a day's run away from here, and if I can get to her before she gets to them, I'm sure I can convince her that they shouldn't know." I nodded slowly, then stared further around me, my vision coming properly back now too. Aside from us, the cave was totally empty, with no sign left to indicate that anyone had been there at all.

"They left," Jasper told me, correctly interpreting my gaze. "And we need to go as well. Here, grab onto us." He extended his arm to warp around me as Emmett did the same from the other side. I turned to look at him: he hadn't said anything this entire time.

"Hey, are you alright?" Emmett grimaced.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I'll tell you what- next time we see weird lines on the ground, let's get the hell away from them, OK?" I nodded again, and let my brothers pull me up.

"OK."

The End.

**A/N: I might eventually add more to this story- I've been considering writing the Jane encounters in ****New Moon**** from EPOV where this story has happened. I have no idea how soon I might get to it though. Meanwhile, this is the end of this particular event.**

**A big thanks to all my readers, alerters, favoriters, and (especially) reviewers. Sorry for the delay with this last chapter: RL and writer's block are mostly to blame for it, though I will also admit to some procrastination. Anyway, all the best to all of you.**

**Finally, if you read this and liked it, or read it and felt it was average, or even read it and thought that I'm a horrible, insane, violent person: please, please, please REVIEW. It takes so little time, and nothing makes me happier. Thanks to everyone who does.**

**And that's it. **


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